40 -hour flightmare for passengers blocked at 2,300 miles of destination

Airline passengers were delayed almost two days after a medical emergency forced an unexpected stopover.

Virgin Atlantic Flight 358 took off from London Heathrow airport at noon on Wednesday and was to land at Mumbai about nine hours later.

However, Flightradar24 data show that the Airbus A350 turned to Turkey four hours on the trip.

He turned to Diyarbakır airport, which is also used as a military base and generally does not welcome large large bound planes like the A350.

The airport is approximately 2,300 miles while the crow out of Mumbai and 2100 miles from London.

A spokesperson for the airline told Business Insider that one of the passengers was seriously ill and had been helped by local medical teams after leaving the plane.

The A350 also required technical inspections, which seem to have exacerbated the delay.

Some passengers went to X to complain about the event, sharing a video of the unhappy crowd.

A user said that 12 hours after landing, passengers had not yet received “food or appropriate accommodation”.

In a post X, the airline said that customers had to stay in the departure lounge during the night because it was outside the airport operating hours – while refreshments, including water, were provided.

There were also difficulties in immigration requirements before the airport authorities “made an exception to allow passengers to temporarily leave the airport,” said another position of the airline.

“The majority of our customers have received night hotel accommodation before their trip today,” Virgin Atlantic spokesman said on Friday. “We would sincerely like to apologize for the delay and the disadvantages caused.”

They added that after receiving the necessary technical approvals, the flight was to continue at noon at local time Friday – almost 41 hours after landing in Diyarbakır.

The Airbus A350 is expected to land in Mumbai at 8:30 p.m. on Friday.